This invention relates to a sod harvester. More particularly it relates to improvements in apparatus for forming rolls from the newly harvested sod.
For many years sod harvesters have been available in which strips of sod are cut from the ground and automatically formed into rolls. However such harvesters have had at least two major disadvantages. Firstly, it has been necessary to remove the rolls by hand from the harvester once they have been formed, at least if they are to be clear of the next pass of the harvester. No automatic method has been available for discharging the rolls to a position clear of the harvester. The manual discharge has required additional costly labour. Secondly, partly because the rolls must be manually handled, their size has been severely limited. The relatively small rolls which can be handled manually are not suitable for automatic laying of the sod, creating increased laying costs. Even if larger rolls could be handled manually, the equipment used to form sod rolls in the past has not generally been suitable for forming large rolls of sod and discharging such rolls to a position where they would not interfere with the next pass of the harvester. In addition the prior art harvesters have not, so far as the applicant is aware, been capable of forming large rolls with the grass side of the sod facing outwardly, a technique which it has been found greatly facilitates laying of the sod.